Quitting Smoking In 2025? Here's What Recent Research Findings Have To Say

Are you about to quit the thought of giving up smoking? With every cigarette one smokes on an average account for 20 minutes off your overall life expectancy, according to data gathered based on British smokers.

After factors such as socio-economic status have been accounted for, researchers expect the loss of life expectancy with every cigarette at 22 minutes for women, and 17 for women, as per an editorial published on Sunday in the journal Addiction.  

That means if someone smokes a pack of 20 cigarettes per day, "20 cigarettes at 20 minutes per cigarette works out to be almost seven hours of life lost per pack," said Dr. Sarah Jackson, a principal research fellow and lead author of the paper, citing a CNN report.

“The time they’re losing is time that they could be spending with their loved ones in fairly good health,” Jackson said.

“With smoking, it doesn’t eat into the later period of your life that tends to be lived in poorer health. Rather, it seems to erode some relatively healthier section in the middle of life,” she said. “So when we’re talking about loss of life expectancy, life expectancy would tend to be lived in relatively good health.”

Common harmful effects of chain-smoking 

Smoking, and in turn chain-smoking, can cause shortness of breath, coughing, and fatigue. It can also dull your senses. When smoking, the body gets a rush of adrenaline. This causes your blood pressure, breathing rate, and heart rate to increase, according to a Healthline report. 

Ther long-term effects of smoking include age-related macular degeneration, cancer, cataract, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, damaged arteries or blood vessels, and decreased bone density.